Cost of building a house

My wife (Japanese) and I have begun planning our retirement years. We�fve been living in the US, and my wife has said she�fd like to go home when we retire in the not too distant future. So we�fve started exploring our housing options. We know we do not want to live in an urban setting, and would like to live someplace quieter and slower than the city life we currently have been living. My wife has mentioned that perhaps we should consider building a new home, but neither of us know anything about building a new home.

So,..does anyone have any knowledge, resources, or ideas where we could find out what the process is for building a new home? Anyone ever been down this road? Anyone have any idea how much a project like this might cost? Roughly calculated, we should have a budget of about $300-$350k.

Thanks

The price would vary greatly (to put it mildly) depending on location, whether you own the land already, how big the house will be, whether you engage an independent architect/buy a ready-made design by a housing developer company, etc.

https://www.retirejapan.com/blog/building-a-house-in-japan/
https://resources.realestate.co.jp/buy/building-a-house-in-japan-key-t...
Something to read ...

As AK said, it is all dependent on location, land owner, etc.. too many variables to consider.

Like others have suggested, you should select a few areas you prefer to live in, before asking agents or housing makers about quotations for your new house-to-be. Even in one town, it greatly depends on the altitude or how far your house is from the supply factories.

Meanwhile, building your ideal retirement house-for-two sounds like a beautiful idea. But perhaps you should keep in mind that fewer retired people build them as opposed to renting/buying used houses and renovating them. Reasons may vary depending on the person, while I can think of several.

1. If you build a house, you need to make sure it works right. Housing makers guarantee regular checkups up to typically the 10th year. (Look up ‰Æ�@‰½”N•Û�Ø.) In other words, a lot of unexpected problems could be found during that decade, and then further on, the maker would not be able to guarantee any fees.

2. Whether you build it or not, if you buy a house, you need to be thinking about the day you get rid of it. While some people are lucky enough to sell his/her home to a good user, many people struggle to sell it due to various reasons such as price change, depopulation and natural disasters. Also, a lot of houses are left abandoned after the last owner passes away with no one to inherit it. (look up ‹ó‚«‰Æ–â‘è)

3. Many retired people chose to move to a rural area nowadays, but there are also disadvantages. (A) Rural areas may not have enough medical/emergency facilities that can become a necessity as you age. (B) Rural areas may be more conservative than the cities, and new residents may have trouble merging in while cooperating with neighbors is a necessity especially in rural areas. (C) Rural areas have a reason to be rural whether it is climate, convenience or ideologies.

I feel that these are the main risks you need to keep in mind. That said, I personally know several retired people (including internationally-married couples) who have bought or rented a "ko-min-ka" (old house) in a rural part of Japan. In some rural areas, ko-minka is built in an extremely romantic way, and the cultural aspect is interesting enough. Rural areas are ideal for artists who need a lot of space, or people who are healthy enough to manage vegetable gardens. There are also many NPOs with young members working as agents to sell abandoned houses so that their rural area could increase population. (Look up “cŽÉ•é‚炵 and ŒÃ–¯‰Æ�Ä�¶)

I hope it helps.

I have seen land and house packages advertised in different parts of the country and they start around 30M yen (less than US$300,000) for a piece of land, space for two cars and a modest sized house for a family (which would be fine for a retired couple). One of the more recent ones was near Nikko, and a similar priced one in one of the cities near Nagano (I thought about that as it was cheaper than what I pay for rent, and the location wasn't bad) - so there are lots of options.
Obviously heading to a more rural setting the land is cheaper. An empty plot I walked past recently was 40 million yen just for the dirt - 130 m2, a back section. Certainly not central Tokyo (that's 40-60 minutes away) and not super close to the train station either.
Also in my neck of the woods, brand new compact apartments are selling for around 35M yen with 0% interest finance, but that is probably a bit small for two.
As for building - it seems to be a well ordered process from the many houses I see being constructed. Basically pull the model you want from the catalogue (for example, Panasonic Homes) and all the stuff arrives on site and it goes up very quickly. In places, I have seen a solo builder put up a place in around six weeks . There is a larger multi-unit development further along the street where a dozen individual houses are going up and they are doing those six at a time - will not take long.

I have heard exactly same things that Uco said from my colleague who moved to a rural place in Japan. The land and house themselves are cheaper than cities but they needed more money for becoming a member of community (otherwise you can't dispose rubbish), for buying a car, etc. It is better to calculate cost of building (architecture) including them. Actually unexpected money was payable even after moving for them, although I don't write it here as this is out of the topic.

The house generally costs around 30M-50M for good quality assuming you own the land. While it is possible to find companies that can build for 15M-20M, I would be very concerned with the quality. If you are looking to sell the house later, then finding a good quality builder is also important. 30M house with a good company is pretty much bare bones, the more you customize, the more it will cost. Remember you will also need additional money for interiors such as air conditioning, curtains, etc.

And I guess it is also important to think about what you define as an "urban setting" vs. what you define as "rural" and what you define as "city life."

Where I use to live in CT was defined by the US postal office as "rural." It was more rural than I would ideally like, but it also wasn't really what I would consider truly rural. I could easily see my neighbors, since we were all mostly on 1 acre lots. It was a 3-4 mile drive to the nearest grocery store and you needed a car as there was no public transit. However to my more rural living mother in law, where we lived was not rural at all. Her nearest grocery store is 15 miles away and it's 3 miles just to your mail box. And of course there is even more rural than where she lives, since it is a community of people still on 1-3 acre lots

Real estate prices went up quite a bit before Corona and are now somewhat stable. You should be able to buy or build a good house for about 50-60M JPY which includes land. Your price range is also doable but for a house about 70-80 meter squared house 1 hour away from Tokyo.

However, my personal advise is do your research very carefully since you will be using your hard earned money at the end of your working life and you dont want to make any mistakes. The biggest mistake a retired couple can make is to build or buy a house very far from Tokyo. Everything is well until you start having mobility issues and need to be closer to a hospital or the airport to visit your families. I have seem huge empty houses in Ito, about 2 hours away from Tokyo, where one person told me that owners decided to move back to Tokyo in advanced age. It's for that reason I bought an apartment right inside Tokyo which will be my refuge in advanced age. However, before that, I am happy to live in the rural area in a cheaper house. A bonus is that since the apartment is in central Tokyo, it is always tenanted so it means I continue to make more money and spend lesser money on rent in the countryside.

what you define as an "urban setting" vs. what you define as "rural" and what you define as "city life."

I agree with this. For example, Ibaraki, Tochigi and Gunma are often said as rural but these places are not rural, just suburb of cities for people from province where even capital city of the prefecture has nothing and you can't live without driving and flying.

It also depends on your definition of 'slower and quieter life', I have many Japanese friends who moved to a city (Tokyo or Osaka) from their rural hometown for 'slower and quieter life' (peaceful life) .

Disregarding the land cost, a standard 80-100sqm house is usually cost 20M JPY to build.
Of course, you may be able to find builders who can build it for 10-15M, but the quality is very poor and those houses are not very comfortable to live in (extremely bad heat retention, noise, etc.)
However, 20M JPY house in terms of build cost would be very bare bones, and likely do not have the best specs. For a house with comfortable living, in general 30M+ JPY would be required to build.